youthlarge's bibimbop

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Park Slope Gastronome #14 - I'm Dining With Elsa

A new addition to our neighbhorhood is called Night and Day, named for the Cole Porter song. When the awning was first raised I imagined the place to be more of a noveau diner, judging by the font. Instead, it's a slightly upscale, but appealing to an entire family, kind of place. Meaning there won't be crayons on the table to entertain the kids for a couple minutes, but expect tons of Bugaboos blocking the path from your table to the bathroom. (By the way, I only saw one, that can't be right, can it?) A few weekends ago we tried out their brunch. We both opted for the prixe fix ($14.95), which included an entree, coffee, cocktail or orange juice and a muffin/mini-chocolate croissant to start. The bloody mary was nothing to get overly excited about but it was decent. Thankfully not too thin and not too vodka-ey, two things I hate in a bloody mary. You have to get the perfect balance between tomato and vodka and I've found in my research that bartenders more often than not can't do this. I'd be foolish to not mention the bloody cajun mary's of the Jones in any post that references this cocktail. They are simply the best in the city - teeming with bits of horseradish, flecked with black pepper and enough spice to wake up your tummy.

But I digress. Dan opted for the french toast for his entree, while I ordered the frittata with cheese, potato and spinach. What I got was a dried out, barely warm flattened disc of overcooked eggs. Any time I came across cheese (I think it was gruyere) in my frittata, it was already coagulated. There was no melty dairy joy, or even a bit of stringiness; the cheese was completely solidified. The accompanying roasted red potatos suffered the same fate - dried out and tough. There were also maybe only 6 chunks on the entire plate. Dan's french toast was a joke - two limp square pieces of thin battered bread that looked so lonely on its plate. Oh wait, there were a couple pieces of honeydew to keep the french toast company.

The service, while pleasant, was very scattered. We had to ask twice for syrup to be brought to the table when it didn't show up with the food. Maybe we'll come back to Night and Day for dinner, but there's no sense in going back for brunch, when there are other options with more inspired food and at lower prices.